Pyramus and Thisbe

Pyramus and Thisbe (pĭr`əməs, thĭz`bē), in classical mythology, youth and maiden of Babylon, whose parents opposed their marriage. Their homes adjoined, and they conversed through a crevice in the dividing wall. On a night when they had arranged to meet at the tomb of Ninus, Thisbe, who was the first at the trysting place, was frightened by a lion with jaws bloody from its prey. As she fled, she dropped her mantle, which was seized by the lion. When Pyramus came, the torn and bloody mantle convinced him that she had been slain. He killed himself, and Thisbe, returning, took her own life with his sword. The white fruit of a mulberry tree that stood at the trysting place was dyed red with Pyramus' blood, and the fruit was ever after the color of blood.

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Pyramus and Thisbe

Hero and heroine of a Babylonian love story related in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Their parents forbade them to meet, so they communicated through a hole in the wall between their two houses before at last deciding to run away together. They agreed to meet at a mulberry tree. Arriving first, Thisbe was scared away by a lion, which shredded the veil she dropped when she fled. Pyramus, finding the veil, believed her dead and stabbed himself; she returned and, finding Pyramus dying, killed herself. The fruit of the mulberry tree, white until then, was stained dark purple by the lovers' blood.

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Pyramus and Thisbe

thinking lover mauled, Pyramus kills himself; upon discovery, Thisbe does likewise. [Rom. Lit.: Metamorphoses]

See : Love, Tragic